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Midlakes Sports
by Ginny Konz
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Recently it was announced that Richard Ciciarelli, long-time golf coach, was named the Finger Lakes Central Coach of the Year. Congratulations, Rick. The league recognized that there might be a reason why Midlakes golfers always do so well.
The modified boys' swim team hosted Geneva last Thursday (Dec. 8) in a league meet. We are the new kids on the block in this sport, just as the girls were, so the fact that our swimmers are competitive is amazing.
Spectators to the meet were able to pick up a paper that listed the events, explained the scoring, and listed the team roster members. The roster included Michael Avanzato, Jason Celestino, Matt Chilson, Joe DeRaddo, Nick DeSain, Alex Grifee, Chris Latch, Mark Logan, Robert Munger, Daniel Noble, Andre Pelletreau, Anthony Reinhardt, and Glenn Schultes, 7th graders, and Gage Pendergast and Chris Roll, 8th graders.
Geneva brought only eight swimmers, no divers, so we had a numbers advantage, but we also have some really talented swimmers. It's incredible that they've only been doing this for about a month.
Geneva entered one team in the 200 medley relay, we had two. The Geneva team jumped out to a lead in the first lap and never relinquished it; we finished a distant 2nd and 3rd. However, in the 200 freestyle, where we entered 3 to their 1, Gage Pendergast was leading the entire race and won by over two lengths of the pool.
Alex Grifee won the 50 yard freestyle by .53 seconds. Matt Chilson won the diving competition against teammate Alex Grifee. After the break came the 50 yard butterfly. Geneva easily outpaced us in this difficult stroke, but Mark Logan finished second. Gage Pendergast won the 100 freestyle. The 50 yard backstroke was a really close race, Geneva won by 2 seconds over Jason Celestino. The 50 yard breaststroke was a close, two-man race; Geneva narrowly beat out Anthony Reinhardt.
The most exciting race was the last one - the 200 freestyle relay. Dan Noble gave his team a lead in the first leg, Chris Roll and Andre Pelletreau maintained the lead, and Alex Grifee held off a determined Geneva swimmer to win by .008 of a second. The final score was 82-62, Midlakes.
December 9 was an opportunity to see most of the boys' basketball teams in action. The 7th and 8th grade teams both won without me; I chose to see the jv and varsity teams for the first time. We were hosting Marcus Whitman.
The Marcus Whitman jv team had two tall, big boys playing low in the paint, but Sean Sweeney dumped in two threes to start the game, and Zach Hicks connected from his spot near the foul line and then from outside the 3 point circle, and that opened things up. Josh DeBoover was then able to drive the lane, and we had a 20-13 lead at the end of one period. The second quarter was sloppy for both teams; a 3 by Zack as time expired gave us 29 to their 24.
We missed out shots early in the second half, and Whitman didn't, coming within one before we got on track, forced turnovers and got hot shooting to take a 15 point (45-30) lead at the end of the 3rd quarter. Whitman stepped up their defense in the 4th, and a plethora of turnovers resulted but little scoring came of it for over 4 minutes. We were able to add to our lead and won easily, 55-37. Josh had 14 points, 7 in the first quarter. Zach's 13 were spread more evenly. Sean chipped in 8, and Kyle Tillman came off the bench to add 7.
The varsity game was a battle from the opening tap. Caleb Frederick went down with an ankle injury after contesting their first lay up attempt of the game. He soon returned, but Ben Sheppard, who was hit in the face, blinked for the rest of the game as thought he had been poked in the eye. Jordan Wilson's 3 tied the game at 7 and his next shot, also a 3, gave us a shot-lived lead. However, we were up, 12-10, when the dust settled on the first quarter.
The second period saw Whitman force turnovers and take the lead on the strength of a string of 3s. We struggled to score at all, failing to finish several well-executed plays.
Whitman was leading, 26-21, at the half.
Finally our shooting prowess returned in the third, period, and we regained the lead momentarily on a light jumper by Caleb. Another MW 3 erased that, but our shooting stayed with us, and we were ahead, 35-31, after three periods, setting the scene for an even more furious pace over the final 8 minutes. There were a lot of turnovers both ways as 2 teams battled for the ball and the good shot, or a free throw opportunity. Of our 15 4th quarter points, 11 came from free throws ( 7 of those were Caleb's, 3 Ben's and 1 Greg VanderBrook's). On the strength of our free throws we gradually added to our lead and won, 50-37. Caleb, in spite of a slow start, came on to total 19 points for the team; Jordan had 9 points, all threes; Ben had 8.
By the time you see this the swimming team will have hosted HAC on Monday, December 12, but you can maybe see the 7th and 8th grade boys at 4:15 on Tuesday and /or the jv and varsity boys starting at 6 on Tuesday, Dec. 13. The opponent will be Waterloo. The freshmen will play at 4:15 on Friday, followed by the jv and varsity girls starting at 6pm. That day the opponent is Penn Yan.
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